I’ve always loved Psychology — I grew up watching Dateline, so it was only natural I’d develop an interest in true crime, especially in what made criminals tick! But I didn’t just stop there, I wanted to learn how normal people worked too. As an empath, I was practically born to be a therapist, which is why it came as such a huge shock when I was dismissed from my post-grad clinical supervision program this past week.
I have a passion (and natural talent) for psychoanalyzing people’s behavior and giving advice for improving interpersonal relationships. I have a great track record too! Back in high school, I would generously counsel my friends with their relationship problems. They were so lucky to have me! I mean, how did Sarah have no idea Mark bringing her flowers was clearly lovebombing? And Melanie couldn’t see that Paul was trying to make her codependent on him when he asked her to meet his parents. Of course, eventually I had to draw a boundary, and stop their trauma-dumping on me just because I’m the only one mature enough to do this emotional labor. I don’t work for free, which is why I decided to make a career out of it!
Once I got through my grad program, I was so excited to start my post-grad supervision, but Dr. Pavner hated me from the beginning. I can’t imagine why! I was a model therapist-in-training. I even kept a notebook dedicated to my observations, color-coded by diagnostic explanation and including my client’s full birth chart — I got kinda OCD about it. Dr. Pavner must have felt threatened by me being so new to the field and already matching, if not surpassing her in skill. I mean, the patients clearly liked me better.
Dr. Pavner was always pushing back and asking patients hard questions that they clearly didn’t want to answer! I once spotted her bringing in her therapy dog for her patient with a severe dog-phobia to interact with. I was shocked she was re-traumatizing her patients and confronted her about it after the session was over. Dr. Pavner explained it was “in-vivo exposure therapy” and that I “really should have learned this in grad school” but I’m not sold.
Unlike her, I actually validated my patients’ experiences and would never push them to confront something emotionally challenging! I told Marley her boyfriend was blatantly displaying signs of gaslighting, so the only option she had was to ghost him! And Lucy was clearly a victim of narcissistic abuse by her mother, so not following her roommate’s chore chart was just a trauma response — they were obviously trying to control her too! And if Eliott would have panic attacks if he didn’t check all the locks in his house seven times, what was the harm in letting him keep his coping mechanism?
But instead of seeing me and seeing my effort, Dr. Pavner fired me.
Maybe Dr. Pavner is the narcissist.
"Annelise" walked out of the sea thirty years ago and they have looked back multiple times since! When he is not writing and editing satire, she enjoys arts and crafts and taking long strolls on the MC Escher stairs.
